The Abduction
by sototallyrandom
Summary: Who would make a better hostage than a young girl that is emotionally attached to practically everyone in the town and is the granddaughter of a wealthy household?
1. Intro

**This is a little idea I wanted to dabble with, but if anyone likes it I'll continue!**

His first plan had been flawed, he hadn't known how else to get the money besides to rob a small town bank. He'd picked Stars Hollow, a sleepy little town that couldn't have much security. But then he found another way, one that was much easier. It would have been harder to rob a bank than snatch a girl off the street.

So he began his search for the perfect hostage. He studied the lives of everyone in the town, trying to find just the right person. He found his answer very quickly. Who would make a better hostage than a young girl that is emotionally attached to practically everyone in the town and the granddaughter of a wealthy household?

So he planned the abduction perfectly. He memorized her school schedule as well as the schedule for her outside of school life, which wasn't too easy because the girl and her mother didn't always have a plan. It was just an added bonus that this girl didn't have a father, he could pick any damned moment he wanted to grab her, even if her mother was present.

That wasn't how he was going to do it, though. He was going to mess with the mother's mind just enough to drive her crazy and make her willing to do anything to get her daughter back. Taking the kid when no one was looking meant it looked more like a disappearance than a kidnapping to the police, and they wouldn't investigate for a full twenty-four hours. If he presents that he has the girl just after that, the woman will be desperate for her child. It's like toying with a mother bear and her cub, use her instincts to make her fear the worst.

He was going to snatch her up during her walk home from the bus stop, and he was infuriated when a tall boy met her as she hopped off the last step. He left the bus stop and promised to come back the next day.

But as he was walking home, he noticed the tall boy go into the market, he was taking a shift he normally didn't have today. The girl continued her walk home after they kissed goodbye. The street was empty; it was like the girl had been delivered to him if he would take her at just this moment.

**I know this is REALLY short but I want to know if people have any interest before I continue with it. So if you like it and want me to continue please review! **


	2. Phase One

**I'm surprised this story actually caught some interest! Thanks for reviewing! I want you to know that if you hadn't figured it out already, this story takes place early in the series. I've only seen the first two seasons because I've only recently started watching the show. So no spoilers! (much appreciated)**

Rory hadn't realized what was going on when it happened, but she felt stupid for not realizing it sooner.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing out on the streets all alone? It could be dangerous." He said to Rory as he approached her. Rory stopped and stood next to him, always open for a conversation.

Rory had grown up in Stars Hollow, where everyone knew everyone, so the rule of not talking to strangers was rarely enforced. Rory hadn't ever encountered strangers quite like this.

"In Stars Hollow? It's never dangerous on the streets here." Rory replied with an amused smile. Her innocence further assured him that he picked the right girl. He chuckled as he continued to talk with the girl who was unaware of his intentions.

"Well I'm from the big city of Las Vegas, I guess I've never been in such a... charming... town before." He said as he glanced around and looked at the center of town. Still no one was outside besides the two of them.

The silence following his comment made Rory slightly nervous and something about the way it looked like he was thinking concerned her. She shifted her weight onto one foot and the icy snow crunched beneath her.

"I have to go now." Rory stated awkwardly. She clutched her books to her chest and didn't think to walk into the safety of the market and instead tried to go home.

Rory had the naive hope that nothing was going to happen to her, it was snowing after all. Good things were supposed to happen when it snowed, that's what her mother told her.

Terror struck Rory in the heart when she heard the footsteps of the mysterious stranger following her. Rory froze in place when a large hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Really, you should let me give you a ride home. I'm sure your mom doesn't want you out in the cold."

Her ears were freezing and pink with the cold, but Rory was sure she heard him right. How could he have possibly known about her family? She wanted to throw up when she glanced around the street. No one was out, it was too cold.

_You just watch too many movies with Mom, this man is just trying to be friendly_, Rory tried to convince herself. But she quickly changed her mind. Big man from a big city, all too friendly to a young girl out on the street. Rory determined that if she had had half a brain she would have walked right into that market to Dean when the man had first approached her.

She tried to make a run for it, but her futile attempt was put to an end when her attacker grabbed a handful of her brown hair and yanks her back. Rory yelled in pain and the books that didn't fit in her back fell from her arms to the ground. His fist collided with her face and the event was over from Rory's perspective.

He lifted the girl's limp body and slung her over his shoulder. Her close to bursting backpack hardly weighed him down. He carefully bent over and lifted the girl's spoiling books from the wet, snowy sidewalk and he began to stalk off. Phase One was complete.

Lorelei had told Rory that morning that she would be home late, so when Lorelei did actually get home late, she thought nothing of the fact that Rory wasn't in sight. She assumed that Rory was in her room studying, Rory had told her in a panic that morning that she had a huge test in science the next day, so Lorelei didn't want to disturb her daughter. Even if she had intended to, she wouldn't have been able to. She was too busy to grab coffee throughout the day and was so exhausted because of a large group of needy guests that she fell asleep as soon as she sat her keys on the table and collapsed onto the couch.

The first thing that went wrong in the morning was that Lorelei woke up at nine o'clock, past when school started for Rory. Rory always woke her up before school and Lorelei worried that her daughter was sick or slept in on her test day.

"Rory, we're late!" Lorelei yelled as she charged into her daughter's room. The first thing Lorelei felt was confusion when she saw her daughter's bed, perfectly made and unslept in.

The panic that ensued was unbearable. Lorelei would have assumed that Rory had taken the bus, but when she entered the kitchen and saw the money on the counter where she had left it for Rory to order some food, she knew something was very wrong.

To confirm her suspicions Lorelei ran around the house, horrified that none of Rory's school things were anywhere she normally put them, she hadn't put any dirty clothes in the hamper or on her floor, and worst of all, the books in Rory's room hadn't moved. She usually takes different books every day, she never keeps the same three.

At that moment Lorelei knew that her teenage daughter hadn't returned home after school.

In a panic she called Chilton, her parents, Luke, Sookie, Dean, Lane, even Christopher. Anyone Rory could possibly be with. She wasn't anywhere. Dean said she saw Rory before she walked home, but no one had seen her since. Many of the people she had called insisted on going out to search for her, and the word spread through the town quickly. Everyone knew Rory was missing but not a single person knew where she had disappeared too.

Lorelei called the police and they showed up at her house, along with a very concerned Dean and several others.

"M'am, are you sure there is no where your daughter would have been last night?" An officer asked her.

"No, I'm sure, my daughter was supposed to be here!" Lorelei shouted at the tall man in the uniform who was scribbling notes on a pad of paper.

"Has your daughter-"

"Rory." Lorelei interrupted him.

"Has- Rory, ever gone missing like this before?" He asked her.

"She was mad at me once and went to her grandparents without telling me..." Lorelei mumbled, throwing words at him like they could form a trail to Rory on the ground with little arrows that say "hot" or "cold".

"So you're saying she has displayed this type of behavior before?" The officer asked skeptically. All Lorelei could think that was directed at the officer is that he should take off his badge and stab himself in the eye with it. He was asking stupid questions, questions that wouldn't lead them to Rory.

"No! I never said that! Rory is a great kid, she wouldn't just vanish into thin air!" A very desperate Lorelei yelled at the officer.

"May we have a recent picture of Rory?"

Lorelei pulled her wallet from her purse and, with shaky fingers, handed a picture of Rory from her most recent birthday to the police.

"We'll keep an eye out for her, but we're afraid any evidence suggests that she has simply run off. We cannot open a missing persons investigation until twenty-four hours have passed since you found out she was missing this morning." The officer informed her.

"Twenty-four hours! You're saying my child has to be missing for twenty-four hours for anyone to give a damn! She's just a kid, and not a very street smart kid! Do you know what could happen to a kid like Rory in twenty-four hours out there all alone?! And it's freezing!" Lorelei shouted at them. She had already paced a trail in the floor and created a draft.

Dean tells the police everything he knows and tries to comfort Lorelei, but the two of them together make for one large dish of worry. They both knew Rory wouldn't go anywhere without telling someone.

**Make sure you review, it's really great to know people enjoy my writing. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated as long as it's actually constructive and not just hurtful.**


	3. Phase Two, Part One

**I don't really have a note for this chapter, but still read and review!**

Rory wasn't sure where she was, but she knew she didn't like it. It was cold and damp, so cold that she could hardly feel her fingers. When she did attempt to move them, she realized that her hands were tied together in front of her. This was when reality finally struck her. She felt the tape on her mouth and around her wrists and ankles. She was in a dark room because she was being contained.

Rory narrowed down the pain she was feeling to her left eye, which she realized was completely swollen shut. All of the memories came flooding back from the recesses of her mind and Rory panicked. It was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing, but she knew her backpack and books were gone when she stood up and felt very small and light.

Rory's school uniform wasn't enough, she shivered uncontrollably. Rory's first step to free herself was to use her hands, even though they were taped together, to remove the tape from her legs and her mouth. next she started feeling her way around the room, catching a few splinters in her hands. But that was the least of her worries right now and she ignored them. The room was very small, she covered the whole perimeter in a few seconds. It was about closet size. When she finally located the doorknob she retracted her hand in shock because the round knob was metal and as cold as death. It burned to touch it. She twisted it anyway and blinked as light flooded into the crack. she opened it further and gasped when he was standing there, waiting for her.

The test was cancelled that day. Paris was furious, she had prepared so well and now she had to wait another day, one more day that the information could fade in her mind. The whole school was pretty shaken up because of Rory's disappearance, and Paris couldn't help but feel angry at Rory for the delay.

"What do you think happened to her?" Paris heard a few random gossipers in the hallway.

"She probably got lost in a book and got off the bus a few stops late. She's probably just lost." Paris injected into their conversation. She was trying to convince herself more than them.

Although she would never admit it, Paris was worried. She was genuinely concerned about Rory Gilmore's well being, which she found very strange. She pinned it on the fact that school would lose its edge without competition and it would go back to the predictable phases of learn-study-test that she had begun to find boring. Paris had gotten used to competing with Rory for everything and not having the annoying girl in her classes was unnerving.

During his class, Max Medina noticed how even Paris was nervous. He knew that the girls didn't get along well, but he shrugged it off. Max had let the class read outside reading books the whole period, he wasn't up for teaching. The news of Rory's disappearance disturbed him more than he knew it could. He realized that he had grown to love the kid as much as he loved her mother. Rory was almost his daughter, he thought.

Max knew how much Lorelei worried when Rory was five minutes late, he hated imagining what state she would be in at this moment. He promised himself that he was going to check up on her after school was over.

Dean was standing outside the market in the cold, feeling guilty. He had been the last one to see her, so he figured it was his fault she was missing. If he hadn't picked up an extra shift that day he would have been with her the whole walk home and nothing would have happened to her. And if it did he would have at least known what had happened.

He is staring down at his feet with his hands in his pockets when he notices something. Footprints. Rory footprints. They were obviously hers, they were small and in the shape of the shoes that she wore to school. He could follow the path and possibly see where she went. He walked alongside it so as to not mess it up.

A terrible feeling settled in Dean's stomach when he saw a much larger pair of footsteps come closer to Rory's. The two footprints change direction, as if Rory and a man were standing and facing each other. The next footprints he sees are the man's footprints overlapping behind Rory. Dean isn't a tracker, but he can tell a man was following her. When Rory's footsteps are farther apart, it signals to Dean that she had been running.

Dean is horrified to find a big area on the sidewalk completely messed up. Then Rory's footprints disappear, just like her. The big pair walk across the street and Rory's are nowhere to be seen. Dean tried to swallow a lump in his throat, because now he knew that something terrible happened to his girlfriend. He could picture the whole scene in his head, Rory being outwardly friendly to anyone who happens to walk by, and someone taking advantage of that.

He quickly dialed 911 and told them what he'd found, but by the time the police arrived on the scene the tracks had already been covered by fresh snow. They still didn't believe anything had happened to Rory and Dean wanted to slap some sense into them. He couldn't track the man's prints any further. After the police left, he put his head in his hands and cried into them shamelessly.

When Dean finally calmed down, he walked back to the market. As he passed where the prints used to be, he stumbled over something buried beneath the snow.

_Anna Karenina,_ one of Rory's favorite books. It was drenched and probably ruined, but it was Rory's. Dean picked it up carefully, the pages were likely to fall out.

"Rory?!" Lorelei called hopefully when she heard a noise on the porch. She jumped off her spot on the couch and threw open the front door. She was extremely disappointed to find Dean.

Dean was shocked by Lorelei's appearance. He had never seen her such a wreck, she didn't have any makeup left to run, her eyes were puffy, and her cheeks permanently stained with tears.

"Are you alright?" Dean asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Emily and Richard showed up at the door. They had decided that they were going to stay and help their daughter, Lorelei was hardly functional at the moment.

"Dean? What are you doing here?" Emily asked, as if it was odd that he would show up here.

"I... I uh..." Dean had started to say.

"Well for heaven's sake, what is it?" Emily interrupted him.

"God, Emily, let him speak." Lorelei scolded her between sniffles. Emily backed down, knowing now was not the time to pick a fight.

"I... found this." Dean said. He offered Lorelei the book. Dean was grieving, but he knew that Rory's mother had just as much of a right- if not more- than him to have the book. Lorelei stared at it for a moment, but quickly clutched it to her chest and moved back over to the couch. Dean sat next to her and Emily and Richard left the room to give them some space.

Dean watched in silence as Lorelei opened the cover and gently ran her fingers over the smudged ink saying "This book belongs to Rory Gilmore". Dean smiled. The handwriting was messy, Rory had probably had the book since middle school or earlier.

"We better put this on the shelf so it's here when she gets back." Lorelei said. Every word that came out of mouth was choked or strained. Dean could tell that if Rory didn't return home soon Lorelei wouldn't be able to live with herself.

Dean accompanied Lorelei to Rory's bedroom, but he hesitated before entering. It was unchanged, every object in the room was exactly how Rory left it.

When Lorelei opened a drawer full of books and slipped Anna Karenina into a specific place, Dean was amazed. Not even he could understand Rory's filing system.

"It's going to be ok, she'll be back." Dean told Lorelei, the statement intended to comfort the both of them.

Every member of the town who wasn't searching for Rory had a stapler and a stack of paper in their arms. Missing Child posters with Rory's smile beaming at anyone who looked were plastered on every pole and flat surface from Luke's all the way to Hartford.

Richard was generous enough to sit by the phone. They had gotten quite a few phone calls of people seeing girls who looked like Rory when it was really a false alarm. Lorelei just couldn't take the rising hope and the crushing feeling when it wasn't actually her.

Everyone in the house was surprised when Paris rang the doorbell. Lorelei let her in because anyone who saw Rory that day could know something. Paris admitted that she didn't know anything, but if she was told everything everyone knew, she might be able to help. She is good at finding and solving stories. She told them that she wanted to help, and no one was going to stop her, even though no one had come even close to objecting.


	4. Phase Two, Part Two

**Thank you for the follows and reviews! **

**In response to ****I have too much spare time****: I wasn't aware that the point of view was slightly confusing, I'll be sure to try and add a horizontal line or some kind of sign that the point of view is changing, but unfortunately I cannot directly state who's point of view it is because the story is written in third person omniscient. Thank you for letting me know and I'll try to make it less confusing. **

"You didn't follow the tracks across the road?" Paris asked in disbelief. She was sitting with Dean in Rory's room trying to find out everything he knew.

"I was trying to call the police!" Dean defended his decision, but he knew himself that he should have followed the footprints in the snow.

"Yeah, that turned out great, didn't it?" Paris snaps at him and rolls her eyes. She couldn't understand how Rory could date someone with such a lack of logic.

Paris unfolded a map and circled an area on it in red marker.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked her.

"Rory is somewhere in this circle." Paris said, already crossing things off inside.

"How did you-"

"You said the tracks crossed the street, didn't you? That means she's on this side of town." Paris explained.

"How do you know she's still in town?" Dean asked, wanting an explanation for her madness.

"I don't. But if she's not in town she's long gone, so we just have to search as if she's still here." Paris told him. Dean seemed satisfied with this answer, but he hoped to god that Paris wasn't right about Rory being long gone.

"What are you-"

"Crossing out the places she couldn't be, like the park and open spaces where someone would have seen her before now. She wouldn't be there." Paris said, never averting her eyes from the map in front of her as she mostly talked at Dean instead of to him.

"You're scary." Dean comments, referring to her ability to narrow things down so quickly and her ability to know what his questions are before he asks them. He was also just trying to lighten the mood a little bit, the house was too sad. Paris ignored his comment and continued to stare at the map.

Dean could now understand even further how Paris bugged Rory so much. The hard look in her eyes made her intimidating despite her tiny size.

"Rory?" Dean heard from the main area of the house. Someone had knocked again and Dean couldn't help but feel the slight pang in his chest where part of him wondered if Rory was at the door.

"Max?" Lorelei said in surprise when she opened the door and he was outside to greet her.

"Hey. Are you ok?" He asked her. He knew she would be a wreck, but she looked even worse than he had thought she would.

Max could tell by looking into her eyes that she was in so much distress that even her mind wasn't capable of processing information very well.

"I'm fine, it's Rory that's missing." Lorelei said.

"I know. I wanted to see how you were doing, if there's anything you need." Max muttered. When he had come over originally he hadn't really thought about what it was he was going to say and what he was planning on doing once he got there.

Their conversation was interrupted by Paris, who shuffled out the door and slid past Max.

"Mr. Medina." She addressed him to be polite, but ignored him completely as she passed them.

"I have to get home." She said simply as she got into her car. Max turned back to Lorelei, ignoring the fact that Rory's worst enemy was just here.

"Yes, Max, I do need something. I need Rory." Lorelei sobbed desperately. Lorelei couldn't stand not knowing where her child was. Her baby, the little tiny thing she had taken care of when she was sixteen, the one who was there for her better than even her parents, the goofy kid who cried when she got an A- on a quiz in sixth grade, the teenager who was her daughter and best friend wrapped up in the same awkward package. Rory was the most important person in the world to her.

"I know, and tomorrow morning the police will start looking, and they'll find her." Max assured her. He was trying to calm her nerves, but it was in vain.

Dean had heard their conversation and considered showing Lorelei the map. But he looked around and realized that Paris had taken it with her. Of course she had.

Dean decided it was time he get home and though everyone hated leaving her alone, everyone went home for the night.

Rory had had the most terrifying and traumatic day of her life. She hadn't spoken a word since the man stopped her on the sidewalk after school the day before, she had been too scared. After she had gotten out of that cramped closet and met face-to-face with her kidnapper, he had beaten her up enough to make her think twice about trying a second escape attempt.

Her lip was busted and bleeding and her head ached more than before. She was sure one of her ribs was broken, and bruises spanned the lengths of her arms. She could hardly remember how it had happened, when he attacked her she tried to shut off her brain so she didn't have to be there. She refused to keep the memories.

Rory was sure her injuries were worse than she could feel, the air was so cold most of her body was numb and she guessed she could only feel about half of the pain she would be feeling if had been summer.

He muttered to himself as he entered the empty closet Rory was being stored in. At the sound of his voice and the flood of light Rory whimpered and cowered into a corner, squinting her eyes as the light beamed into her face.

Rory couldn't move any further away, this time instead of using the tape he used zip ties to attach her hands to a wire shelf near the ground.

Rory wondered what his motive was for kidnapping her, an obvious reason still hadn't shown itself and Rory couldn't help but become curious.

She also wondered why no one had come for her yet. Weren't the police trying to find her? When he tried to grab her shoulder, Rory decided she had had enough and lashed out at him. She managed to kick him in the face with her heel before he put an end to it. Rory was rewarded with a sharp backhand to the face. The force moved her whole body to the right.

Before she had a chance to recover he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head up so that she was looking ahead, even though he was standing to her left. Rory was stock-still when she felt the cold barrel of a gun jab into her temple. Her body began shaking with fright as well as cold and it seemed like she stayed in that position for hours when in reality it had only been a few seconds. Rory flinched when she heard a clicking sound and was confused when something flashes in her face instead of something breaking through her skull.

"Phase Two is almost over kid, if you'll just cooperate you'll be out of here by nine-thirty in the morning." He says.


	5. Phase Three

Lorelei woke up at nine am on the dot. She wanted to be awake during the whole search for Rory in case the police called with updates.

The phone rang before she was even out of bed. How had they found something so fast? Lorelei didn't question it, if they had found Rory she didn't care what time it was and she ran to catch the phone before it sent the caller to voice mail.

"Have you been outside yet this morning, m'am?" An officer asked on the other end of the line. She recognized him as the officer taking lead in her daughter's investigation.

"No, no I haven't." Lorelei answered, wondering what this could possibly have to do with Rory.

"We suggest you go to Luke's cafe and be caught up on the details. And I would do it now. The drop is going to take place in thirty minutes." The officer said. He hung up before Lorelei could ask questions.

She forgot about what was socially acceptable to go out in and fought away the snow blocking her front door in her pajamas. Lorelei drove as fast as she could without being reckless on the icy roads to Luke's. Drop? What Drop? She wondered. Then it hit her. _He wants to trade me my daughter for money._

So when Lorelei got to Luke's, she wasn't surprised to see her parents, their faces creased with worry as well.

"Luke." Lorelei sighed as she collapsed into a hug.

"Lorelei." He said gently. When she still hadn't released him, he said her name with more force. Lorelei was refusing to let go of him, she really needed to hold onto someone. So instead of using words, Luke shoved the crumpled piece of paper into Lorelei's hand.

"What is this?" She asked. She finally let go of Luke and unfolding the piece of paper. Her heart stopped and a choking noise escaped her throat. Emily hugged her daughter close and went down to her knees slowly with her. Lorelei couldn't hold herself up. The piece of paper she was holding contained a picture of Rory, in black and white. Her baby was all beat up and a gun was aimed at her temple. Lorelei couldn't bear to look at her face. The emotions splattered across Rory's face in the picture consisted of fear, pain, and confusion. But mostly fear.

It took a few minutes to look past the face, and when she did Lorelei saw the words. They called for one hundred thousand dollars at the location of a house that burned down in a fire years ago and it specifically stated that Rory would not live if the money wasn't left at the site by nine-thirty or if he saw a single authority when he came to collect. Lorelei glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 9:19.

"Where did you find this?" she asked. Her eyes looked dead as they stared at the picture of Rory.

"One of them was hung over every Rory poster in town. Don't worry the police are going to get Rory back right now. They ordered that you stay here throughout the time." Luke said. "Rory will be back in less than fifteen minutes, Lorelei."

Paris burst through the door of the cafe.

"Dean." She said firmly. She ran over, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him away from a sobbing Lorelei and company.

"What?! The police are going to get Rory right now, you don't need to do anything else!" Dean told her. He didn't know that she knew something no one else did.

"No, it's wrong!" Paris shouted at him.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked her. He didn't understand a word she was saying, she was crazy.

"The poster, the old burned down house, that's not where Rory is!" She said. "The police are going to leave the money there, but Rory isn't there for them to take home!" She explained to him. She dragged Dean into her car and started driving.

"How do you know?" Dean asked her.

"You really think I went home last night? I drove around town and narrowed it down to three locations, three places that were old and abandoned. But she's not in the house the police are at right now." Paris said." Dean still didn't understand what was going on, but he had to trust her for Rory's sake.

The night before while Paris had been driving around, she saw a tiny flash in the old Inn that from the outside appeared to be falling down. She shrugged it off then, but when she saw the poster with Rory's picture, she knew she had seen a camera flash. That meant Rory was in that building.

After she had finally explained this all to Dean they pulled up next to the building. Hopefully Rory's kidnapper had gone to collect his money, or they were dead. They didn't have any weapons or anything to defend themselves with, but they had to try.

"Why don't you just tell the police?" Dean whispered as they approached the door. He checked his watch. 9:28.

"You know they wouldn't believe me. And do you want to go tell them now? By the time we get back so will he." Paris whispered angrily at him. When she was fairly sure no one was present, she walked straight up to the front door and walked right in. Dean followed behind her.

"Rory?" Paris called. No response.

"It's freezing in here." Dean observed. If Rory had been in here for over twenty four hours he didn't know if her heart would even be beating.

"I saw the flash upstairs." Paris told him. Dean watched the door from the steps while Paris went to investigate. She went to the bedroom she thought she saw the flash come from. It was empty. She almost turned around, but she noticed a closet door. She ran over to it and threw it open. Rory flinched away immediately.

"Rory!" Paris yelled. It signaled for Dean to run up the stairs.

"She's cold as ice." Paris told a shell-shocked Dean. Paris quickly pulled what she could of Rory's body into a hug, using the excuse that she needed as much warmth as she could get. Paris was very relieved to see her.

"You're gonna be OK Rory, I promise." Dean said with tears in his eyes. He retrieved a pocket knife from his pocket and began sawing away at the zip ties.

"Hurry up! It's 9:35, he could be on his way back!" Paris shouted at him.

When Rory was finally free, Dean gently tried to lift Rory but stopped when she cried out in pain.

"She's injured, but we have to get her out." Paris said. Paris put on Rory's backpack and picked up her books. She knew Rory would kill her later if she didn't take them.

"Hi Dean. Paris." Rory muttered, half conscious.

"Hey." Dean said with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. Paris averted her eyes and instead went to check the window.

"There's someone driving down the road!" Paris shouted. Dean had to ignore Rory's protests as he put one arm under her knees and the other around her torso and lifted her. Rory rested her head on Dean's shoulder. The two of them ran down the steps and jumped into Paris's car, Rory still in Dean's lap. They sped off, but not before the car took a hit by a bullet. It didn't do any damage other that put a hole in the car's covering, but it still scared the shit out of the three kids in the car. They dodged a few more bullets, but the man wouldn't dare follow them into town.

When they made it to Luke's, Paris parked the car and they headed inside. As soon as the door opened everyone looked up at them and when they spotted Rory, chaos erupted. Everyone wanted to see her, but Dean ignored everyone but Lorelei and took Rory upstairs with Luke's permission to lay her down on his bed.

"Rory!" Lorelei cried, brushing hair out of her daughter's bloodied face. "Rory, it's mom." She told her. Rory's eyes were half open and were scanning the room, but they came to rest on her mother.

"I'm OK now." She choked out, throwing her arms around her mother's neck and letting out all the tears she was refusing to let out for the past day.

"Rory, you're freezing!" Lorelei exclaimed.

"Mild hypothermia." Paris said as she hurried back into the room with a dozen blankets that Luke had dug up for her.

"You found her?" Lorelei asked Paris. Paris nodded slightly and finally put down Rory's backpack.

Lorelei put her hand on Paris's shoulder and waited for her to make eye contact.

"Thank you." Lorelei told her. She also thanked Dean for helping get her out of the house and everyone for every part they played in saving her daughter.

Somewhere during the happy chaos someone called 911 to come and pick up Rory and Lorelei rode to the hospital with her daughter. They knew she was going to be alright.

**Thank you for reviewing! I wasn't planning on making this a long story, but I'm still deciding whether or not I want to write a follow-up chapter, so let me know if you would like one.**


	6. Recovery

**Sorry it's taken me a little longer to update, I've had some stuff to do this weekend. Make sure you read the note at the bottom if you like this story!**

"No reading?" Rory asked, horrified.

"Nope." Lorelei told her daughter. She had finally been able to bring Rory home from the hospital after a day. Rory was recovering steadily, she got away with a cracked rib and a concussion as her only relatively serious injuries. She had a black eye and her lip was busted, but Rory didn't seem to notice. Her bubbly personality was returning quickly, but Lorelei was concerned that Rory was unwilling to discuss her time with her kidnapper. Not even when the police had come to her hospital room to get her statement.

"Not even-"

"Not a chance." Lorelei interrupted her. Rory's bottom lip stuck out slightly with a pouty expression.

"What about-"

"Rory." Lorelei said as a warning, but she had an amused smile on her face.

"You have a concussion and you need to rest that giant brain of yours." Lorelei joked as she tucked Rory's blankets around her body better.

"Can I have coffee?" Rory asked hopefully.

"Negative." Lorelei said. Rory gave her mother a fake expression of anger.

"You are stripping me of all joy." She said sarcastically. Lorelei smiled. It was good to have Rory back, and she probably would never let her out of her sight again.

"Will you at least read to me?" Rory begged. She hated being deprived of her books for so long, she at least had to hear some literature.

"The doctor said you shouldn't even watch TV or listen to anything that requires focus." Lorelei explained.

"But it won't require focus. If you read one of the books under the bed than I won't have to focus at all because I've read them so many times I already know all the words." Rory told Lorelei in her jabbering tone that made Lorelei wonder how Rory had time to breathe when she spoke.

But Lorelei being Lorelei eventually gave in and picked the first book she could reach from under the bed. She sat at Rory's side on her bed and began reading the first page. Rory couldn't take it though. She loved her mother, but she couldn't stand listening to her read. She didn't say the lines right and she could only pronounce half the words.

"Ok, Ok, I've heard enough." Rory laughed. Lorelei smiled and put the book back below the bed where Rory wouldn't be able to reach it without getting up. When Rory tried to lean over, Lorelei stopped her.

"I'll tie you to that bed if I have to." She joked. She hadn't really realized what she'd said until she noticed Rory's face pale.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." Lorelei apologized and ran her hands up and down Rory's arms. Lorelei shuddered at the image of Rory tied up like an animal and wondered if it had really happened to her.

"No, it's ok mom." Rory said as she shrugged off Lorelei's touch. It was obvious that Rory wasn't ok, she was still terrified.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Lorelei asked. She crawled into the bed next to Rory and Rory rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

"It's just that he's still out there, they never caught him." She muttered.

"Oh, Rory, I promise you're safe now. But if you could just talk to the police it would make it easier to catch him." Lorelei told Rory. When Rory didn't answer, she sighed.

"I know you're still shaken, but I want you to talk to someone. It doesn't have to be me, I just hope you find someone you can talk to." She told Rory.

Initially Paris was surprised when she saw Rory at her locker in the hallways of Chilton. Other than the fading bruise under her eye and the movement of her eyes nervously scanning the halls, she appeared to be back to normal.

"Rory." Paris got her attention by calling to her as she approached. A flicker of a smile made its way across Rory's face. Paris had come over with the intention of being nice, but she didn't know how.

"You're in a group project with me and you need to catch up." Paris blurted out. She expected her comment to hurt Rory and immediately regretted letting the words ever exit her mouth, but if Rory looked any happier she would have been glowing in soft golden light.

"Can we meet outside after school?" Rory asked. Paris nodded and began to walk away.

"And Paris?" Rory called out. Paris stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the girl whose life she saved.

"Thanks." Rory said genuinely. Paris and Rory both could feel the shift between them. People were staring at them like the basic fabric of time and space had just been rewritten.

Paris walked back to Rory and leaned against the wall of lockers next to her.

"You know, if you ever need someone to talk to, I wouldn't laugh if you came to me." Paris said nervously. She wasn't good at being nice, which made her almost as awkward as Rory, even if in a different way.

"I'd like it if you didn't laugh at me." Rory answered back just as awkwardly. The two girls made eye contact for a moment and almost smiled before the bell rang and they rushed off in different directions to avoid putting a blemish on their spotless records by being late.

"And you're sure you're ready to tell the police all of this?" Paris asked Rory. Rory had told her every detail of her ordeal, and Paris was shocked that Rory was already back in school.

They had met up outside of Chilton with the intention of catching Rory up on the school project, but they ended up talking about Rory's experience the entire time. Rory hadn't know how good a listener Paris was until Paris spent hours comforting her.

"No. But if I don't they'll never catch him. He's still out there, I feel like he's watching me. Even if it is just paranoia, I want to know he's locked up." Rory told her.

They were interrupted by the sound of Paris's phone ringing.

"It's your mom." Paris frowned as she looked at the screen.

"Oh, no, my mom!" Rory yelled. "I forgot to tell her I was staying after school!" Rory panicked, bringing her hands up to her forehead. She could only imagine what her mother thought when Rory wasn't home.

"Do you want to get it?" Paris offered Rory her cell phone while it was still ringing.

"No, she's going to kill me!" Rory exclaimed. She pushed the cell phone back towards Paris. "You get it!" She told her. Paris gave her a weird look.

"But-"

"Hurry, before it goes to voicemail!" Rory told Paris. Paris rolled her eyes and answered her phone.

"Yes, yes Ms. Gilmore, Rory's with me, we're working on a project." Paris said into the phone after a few seconds. Rory could almost hear the sigh on the other end of the line.

Rory pulled her cell phone out of her back pack and was horrified to see that her mom had called her fifteen times, but her phone was on silent.

"She wants to talk to you." Paris said with sympathy, holding out the phone. Rory sighed and took it. Before the device was even all the way up to her ear she could hear her mother rambling at her.

"Mom, I'm ok! I'm sorry, I forgot to call!" Rory said into the phone, tears springing into her eyes when she noticed her mother's shaky voice. Her mother had thought she had disappeared again.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'm coming home now. I promise." Rory said before hanging up.

"Need a ride?" Paris asked. Rory nodded and Paris drove her home without another word.

**I was planning on having the story end, but I got an idea to continue and I had to leave an open opportunity to continue if I decided to. I want to know two things from you guys. Should I continue it? And If I do, should I continue it on this story or post it as a different story as a sequel? **


	7. Facing the Faceless Enemy

**I got nothing but encouragement from you guys, I appreciate it! **

**I want to let you know that while Rory's kidnapper remains a minor character, most of the story from now on will be dealing with another conflict that will be revealed to you momentarily. **

**And without further ado, the (sort of) sequel! **

He just didn't understand it. How had those kids found Rory? He had planned it so that he could collect the money in a different location so that no one knew where the girl was, in case he needed to use her as leverage or the police didn't actually bring the money.

He needed that money. Most of what he had said to the girl on the sidewalk was false, but him saying he was from Vegas was like a metaphor, he really wasn't from Vegas, but he owed a lot of money to some nasty people. He needed the money to pay them off, but the brat and her friends ruined it all.

He had it planned so well, Phase One was to kidnap the girl. Phase Two was probably the easiest, the purpose was to hold the girl hostage for twenty four hours to hyper activate everyone's nerves. Phase Three was to send word to the girl's family that he had her captive. Phase Four was the phase that wasn't completed. He was supposed to go to the designated location, pick up the money, then release Rory and send her on her way.

But the police didn't bring the money and he was forced to go back and kill the girl. But her friends had somehow discovered that she was being held there and rescued her before he got back. That he could not understand. He could not understand how anyone could have possibly figured it out so fast without the help of the police.

He had tried to forget it, that plan to earn the money had failed and he had to find another way to get the it.

He had been hiding in plain sight while the girl was recovering. He stayed at the girl's mother's inn, where no one would suspect he would be. He went to the market and any other place in town just like a normal person. He hadn't seen Rory though, she must have been hiding. He'd seen her mother though. He knew how easily and quickly Rory was recovering by watching how quickly Lorelei was happy again. It upset him.

Once the case had finally calmed down, he decided it was time to leave. His newest idea wasn't very well thought out and it was more of a last-minute attempt to pull together some money. He was running out of time to get it to the people he owed and it was making him careless.

"Now can I have coffee?" Rory begged. It had been weeks since her kidnapping and although the police still hadn't found the culprit, Rory had begun to feel safe again. Whoever it was probably skipped town and never came back.

"Fine." Lorelei sighed and made eye contact with Luke, which was the equivalent of ordering coffee.

When the coffee finally arrived at their table Rory took it straight out of Luke's hands and took a large sip of it even though it was still hot. Lorelei could hear Rory's audible noise of contentment and laughed. Rory hadn't been allowed caffeine because of her concussion and she had been going through withdrawal.

"Thank you." Rory said gratefully. She only stopped a few seconds to let her coffee cool before starting up on it again.

"You ready for your test tomorrow?" Lorelei asked Rory, mostly to force her to slow down on her coffee when she answered.

"Definitely. Super ready." Rory replied. Luke walked over and rolled his eyes as he refilled Rory's mug.

"Good. That means you don't need to study tonight. It's laundry night." Lorelei said. She was amused with the horrified look on Rory's face.

"That was last week." She countered.

"No, it was the week before." Lorelei told her. Rory seemed to maul this over for a second before disappointment flooded her face.

"Yeah, you're right." She sighed. "I hate laundry." She muttered.

Lorelei was feeling perfectly content with her life at that moment until she saw every muscle in Rory's body tighten.

"M-mom." She stuttered. Her eyes were locked on someone just entering the cafe and she had begun to shake.

Lorelei tried to look around one of the guests at the inn to see what Rory was looking at.

"What Rory?" Lorelei faced her daughter and asked.

"H-him." Rory sunk in her seat and weakly pointed at the man who was a customer to Lorelei.

"Is he...?" Lorelei had hardly begun the question, she was terrified that the man was in the same room as her baby girl again and even more disturbed that she'd been friendly with him when she saw him at the inn.

Rory nodded furiously. The man made eye contact with Lorelei, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise and a chill to move down her spine, he quickly looked past her to Rory, and then his eyes hardened.

He looked as if he was going to leave them alone until Lorelei brought her phone up to her ear, having already dialed 911. Then all hell broke loose. He lunged for Lorelei and her phone, but she jumped out of the way and tried explaining into the phone what was going on. Lorelei stood protectively in front of her daughter. He charged at them again, and this time Luke jumped over the counter and tried to stop him.

Rory's kidnapper struck Luke in the face and continued to go after Lorelei and Rory.

Even though Rory was absolutely terrified, she knew one thing: she wasn't going to let her mother take a hit for her. Rory shoved Lorelei out of the way just as he got to them.

He was in a rage, he was angry that Rory had gotten away and all he wanted to do was hurt the little brat.

He shoved his hands against her shoulders so hard that Rory more than staggered backwards. The glass shattered behind her and the only thing between her and the sidewalk outside was air.

"Rory!" Lorelei shouted. By this time Luke and every other male in the cafe had apprehended Rory's kidnapper and were intent on keeping him there until the police arrived.

Instead of feeling pain like she had expected, Rory felt a strange numbing feeling and thought it best not to move. Lorelei jumped out the window after her with tears streaming down her face.

Lorelei remembered one of the first times Rory had hurt herself, she had fallen off a bicycle when she was little and scraped her knee. She had come running home crying, and seeing Rory bleed then sickened her.

But the amount of blood on the sidewalk and staining the glass was more than sickening, it was unnaturally terrifying.

"Rory, do you know what's wrong?" Lorelei called to her quickly fading daughter on the sidewalk. She couldn't believe that something terrible had happened to Rory again, how could it? She couldn't believe that Rory's kidnapper had been under her nose the ENTIRE time, and that she had been NICE to him.

When it finally occurred to Rory what was different, she was shocked and in denial.

"I can't feel my legs." Rory cried out. Lorelei choked on her next breath and carefully lifted Rory's shoulders from the ground. Lorelei began to sob when she realized what was wrong with Rory. A shard of glass from the window was piercing Rory's skin right next to her spine.

**What do you think of the new conflict? Do you still want me to continue? I wasn't sure if the conflict was going to be too cliché or if it would actually be interesting, so I'm going to have to rely on you to tell me.**

**And I'm a little stuck on what to do with Dean. Some of you want me to add more of him and some of you are glad that I didn't write much about him. In your reviews I would love it if you would tell me if you wanted more, less, or the same of Dean in this story and I'll go with whatever the majority wanted, because I want this story to be what you want it to be.**

**Well, let me know what you think, send me ideas or predictions, and tell me what you think about the Dean situation. Review!**


	8. The Hospital

"Lorelei?" Luke called as he sat on a plush waiting room chair next to her. Lorelei was staring off into open space in front of her and if there were not tears in the corners, her eyes would have looked dead. He knew there was no purpose to asking if she was alright or attempting to cheer her up, so he got right to it.

"Have they told you anything about Rory?" He asked her. She shook her head no as she replied.

"She's still in surgery. They say there's no way to know how extensive the damage is yet." Lorelei told Luke with a sniffle. Before Rory's surgery had begun, a doctor had told that Rory would survive, but she probably would not make it through without nerve damage.

"She may never walk again." The sentence agonized Lorelei as she spoke it aloud to Luke. Someone had yet to say it and she hadn't said it until this moment.

She wasn't sure what the rest of Rory's, or her, life would look like from this point forward. Rory's legs might not have been the only things affected, the doctors told her. They told her that the surgery was very difficult and that Rory could easily loose feeling in any number of places.

"I'm sorry." Luke told her. He didn't know what to say, he was terrible at comforting people. But he wished he could do more for Lorelei, he hated to see her in such misery and he hated that Rory had been so unlucky. He wished he could fix the situation like he fixed appliances in the Gilmore home.

"There's nothing I can do?" Luke asked her. Lorelei checked the clock on the wall again out of habit before turning to face him.

"Will you stay? Stay with me until Rory is out of surgery?" Lorelei begged.

"Of course." Luke answered. Before he was even done speaking, Lorelei's head was resting on his shoulder and her eyelids were drooping, though she refused to sleep. Luke wrapped an arm around her and held her, not only because it was the only thing he could do, but because he wanted to.

"Ms. Gilmore?" Lorelei and Luke suffered a rude awakening when a doctor approached them in the waiting room.

"Your daughter has come out of surgery and is recovering well." The doctor told her. Lorelei let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and stood up with Luke to be escorted to Rory's room.

"But is she... ok?" Lorelei asked, not sure what the words were to ask what she wanted to know.

"We haven't tested her extensively yet, but we can already tell you that Rory's use of her legs are limited. They are paralyzed, but with enough therapy she may be able to stand again. That is all we know at this time.

"Hey kiddo." Lorelei greeted Rory as she entered her room and took a seat next to her bed. She had asked Luke not to come in, but she also asked him to wait for her. She wanted Luke to stay but didn't think it was right to bring him in without Rory's say so.

"Hi." Rory responded. Her voice was downcast and the volume hardly reached above a whisper. Rory herself wasn't sure if it was the drugs or her medical crisis that was making her depressed, although she figured she should be upset about the second.

Lorelei placed her hand on Rory's thigh. Rory glanced at it, causing Lorelei to realize that it provided no comfort for Rory. She awkwardly moved her hand to hold Rory's. She was relieved when Rory's hand squeezed her tightly. Maybe it was just her legs that were dysfunctional. The more Rory can do the better.

"I'm scared." Rory admitted to her mother. Trying to look forward and change every image she pictured as her future was definitely scary. She didn't know what she was going to do about even the simplest aspects of life.

"How am I supposed to go pee at night or reach books on a bookshelf?" Rory suddenly blurted out. Lorelei couldn't help but smile a little bit at her daughter's priorities, knowing very well that she would have said the same thing even if she wasn't on drugs.

"This is serious." Rory complained. Lorelei cupped Rory's hand in both of hers and looked her in the eye.

"It's alright to be scared, Rory. I'm going to be brutally honest with you and tell you that I'm scared too. But we'll figure it out, we always do." Lorelei spoke kindly to her daughter, making sure that nothing she said would make her any more upset.

"Luke is waiting outside, is it ok if-"

"Luke's here?" Rory asked her. Lorelei almost considered telling her that he actually wasn't until she noticed Rory's face brighten slightly.

"Is Dean here too?" She asked. Then Lorelei was horrified. During the hours that Rory was in surgery, she hadn't called anyone. She found it odd that Dean hadn't heard talk, but she was extremely guilty for not calling her parents. Even then she wondered if she should, they might freak Rory out with talk of her being handicapped and accusations against people to put the blame for the incident on someone.

"No, but I'm sure everyone is going to come see you." Lorelei smiled at Rory. A hint of a smile flickered on Rory's face, but not much.

A familiar cell phone chime sounded from a table near Rory's bed and Lorelei handed Rory her cell phone.

"Want to answer that?" Lorelei asked her daughter.

"Can I?"

"Sure, I'll give you some privacy." Lorelei told her as she exited the room. She could speak with Luke and find out more information from Rory's doctors in the meantime.

"Paris? Hi." Rory said with surprise when she answered the phone. Paris immediately started blabbing about school and how Rory wasn't there to do her share of work on the newest group project. She complained that teachers always paired them together just because they weren't good friends, and she blamed Rory because it obviously had to be her fault, all the teachers knew she was a loner and tried to make her friends with people.

Even though Rory felt like crap, she almost enjoyed being pelted by Paris. It felt... well, it felt normal. And normal was something Rory desired more than anything right then.

"Wait... Where are you?" Paris suddenly questioned Rory.

"I, uh... the hospital." Rory said her location as if Paris would somehow be mad at her.

"Oh my god! What happened?" She asked.

"It's kind of a longish story." Rory answered. The story really wasn't that long, she could have told it in five seconds, but it wasn't the kind of story that was meant to be said over the phone.

"I can't believe you just sat there and let me yell at you!" The irony of this statement and it's delivery was not lost on Rory and a real smile appeared on her face. Paris was just something else.

"I'm going to be there after school." Paris told her.

"You don't have to do that." Rory tried to respond, but Paris had already hung up.

"Ms. Gilmore!" A panicked Dean caught Lorelei's attention as he rushed down the hall towards her.

"Is Rory alright? I walked past Luke's and saw the blood..." Dean said, out of breathe.

"She's alive, if that's what you're asking. But she's not... ok." Lorelei told him. He tried to walk around her and into Rory's room, but Lorelei stopped him by putting her hands on his shoulders.

"You need to know something before you go in there." Lorelei told him.

"What is it?" he asked eagerly. He was already imagining the worst.

"Rory... she might not be able to walk again. Her legs are paralyzed." She told him. His jaw dropped slightly and his eyes glazed over with shock. Without another word he nodded and walked past Lorelei into Rory's room.

No more than three seconds after Rory put the phone down next to her thigh did Dean burst in.

"There was no stopping him." Lorelei shrugged through the door. Dean hurried to Rory's side and leaned in for a soft kiss.

"Thank you." Rory joked. Dean smiled.

"So you seem back to yourself." He said as he settled down in the chair next to the bed.

"I guess so, but I don't think it's really... sunk in yet." Rory said, gesturing to her legs.

"You can't feel anything?" Dean asked, trying to test the boundaries just to see how sensitive Rory was so he knew where the line was.

"Not a thing." She answered him sadly.

"So you can't feel this?" Dean asked as he placed his hand on her thigh. Rory shook her head no in disappointment.

"What about this?" Dean tickled Rory just above her waist playfully.

"Dean!" Rory exclaimed. Dean stopped immediately, but beamed whenever she was smiling at him.

An awkward silence filled the room and neither of the two knew what to say.

"You're going to be ok." Dean told her. To Rory it seemed like he just killed the mood, he was treating her normally until he said that. She had hoped that no one would treat her differently, but she knew that it would never happen.

"Thanks Dean." She told him.

Her mom and Luke entered the room after a few minutes and Dean politely left. When a doctor came in with some results, Luke got up to leave, but both Rory and Lorelei stopped him verbally.

The doctor informed them that while Rory may be able to walk, it was going to take a lot of expensive therapy. Therapy that they would never be able to afford.

Lorelei hated taking money from her parents, but if she was willing to do it for Rory's education she sure as hell wasn't too dignified to ask for this.

"We need to tell Grandma and Grandpa." Rory had added to the conversation. Luke had silently sat on the side and let the Gilmore girls make their decision.

"Besides, I wanted them to come visit." Rory pouted. Lorelei felt guilty that her relationship with her mother had to affect Rory's relationship with her so negatively.

"Alright. I'll call them. They'll know on Friday anyway." Lorelei told Rory.

**I know this stops at an awkward place, but I've been busy with school work and I wanted to get at least something up, even if the chapter didn't end in the right place.**


	9. Paris and Rory

**I know. I suck. I'm an ass. Sorry for the update wait! I had a bunch of tests coming up, and when it comes to school I'm basically Rory, so it caused some delay. I'm on Thanksgiving break now, so I'm going to try and update more often!**

"Hey Rory, it's Paris." Paris announced herself as she entered Rory's hospital room. Lorelei took the opportunity to leave to take a break and get a coffee.

"I'll be back in a little bit." Lorelei told her. Rory nodded as she left.

"I have all of your work." Paris told Rory as she opened her backpack and removed all of its contents, dropping them on the table next to Rory's bed with a loud slam. It was a lot of work and Rory had been anticipating it.

"But wait, don't you need your books?" Rory asked as she picked up the textbook on top.

"Those are yours." Paris told her. A look of confusion passed over Rory's face and she opened the cover. Sure enough, her name was printed neatly inside.

"How did you know my locker combination?" Rory asked, still wondering how it was exactly that her books got there.

"I asked Tristan." Paris told her. Rory groaned.

"Tristan knows my locker combination?" Rory moaned. She could only imagine what she would find in her locker from now on.

"He's worried about you." Paris told her. "We all are." Rory wasn't exactly sure what to say, but Paris wasn't going to let the room stay silent.

"What do you want me to tell them? Everyone is going to be asking me tomorrow." Paris said.

"The truth." Rory answered her. She knew if she gave the students at Chilton anything other than the whole truth they would fill in what they didn't know with rumors.

"And what is that? You still haven't told me your 'long story' yet." Paris said.

"I would have told you already if you hadn't started talking about school." Rory argued.

"It takes two people to have a conversation." Paris spat back, implying that it was actually Rory's fault.

Within seconds the banter was completely forgotten and Rory began to inform Paris of her situation.

"The man who kidnapped me, he found me at Luke's diner and pushed me out the window. Without all the gory details, I can't move my legs." Rory explained.

"Oh my god!" Paris exclaimed.

"What?"

"Oh my god!"

"Paris, what-?"

"Did they catch him?" Paris asked.

"Yes, he's being held awaiting trial." Rory told her with an assuring voice.

"He's guilty." Paris said she had started pacing the room and it made Rory nervous.

"Well we know that, but there has to be evidence to lock him up-"

"This is my fault." Paris said. Rory was shocked. In all the time she'd known Paris she never once knew of Paris blaming herself, not for anything, big or small.

"If I had told the police where you were when you were kidnapped they would have caught him then and this wouldn't have happened to you." Paris told Rory guiltily. Rory grabbed Paris's hand to prevent her from continuing to pace around her bed.

"If you had told the police where I was instead of coming to get me that night I could be dead." Rory insisted.

"But you can't walk." Paris said.

"I know, don't rub it in." Rory joked. Rory tugged on Paris's arm until she finally sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I know you think I'm in this bed because of you, but I know that I'm _in_ this _bed_ because of _you_." Rory told her.

"What do you mean?" Paris wondered.

"You think it's your fault that my legs are paralyzed, but it's because of your efforts and your actions that I'm even alive to be here right now." Rory explained her confusing statement. "You did the right thing, and I thank you for it."

Paris seemed almost satisfied with this and Rory was glad she got through to her.

* * *

><p>"Alright sweetie, are you ready to try this?" a nurse asked as she entered Rory's room with Lorelei. Rory eyed the wheelchair and was suddenly faced with a reality. She had tried not to think about her future recently, which was a big change because all she had thought about her entire life was her future.<p>

Rory hadn't even gone to the bathroom in the day since she arrived at the hospital; she didn't now how and was too embarrassed to ask for help. But it was getting ridiculous, she had to be able to move.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Rory answered. "But can I have a moment with my mom first?" She requested.

"Of course," the nurse nodded and left the room, leaving the wheelchair by the door. Rory couldn't take her eyes off of it.

"Hey honey." Her mom greeted her, taking her hand. She had been doing that a lot recently, it provided her daughter with comfort.

"Dad?" She asked.

"Not yet." Lorelei answered her. Rory was extremely disappointed, Christopher hadn't picked up when Lorelei called him and still hadn't come to see her.

"What about Grandma and Grandpa?" Rory asked. She had hoped for more moral support from her family today. Lorelei's silence told Rory everything she needed to know.

"You didn't call!" Rory accused Lorelei.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just am not looking forward to Emily being here, you've seen her in a hospital." Lorelei explained.

"Well I wanted her to be here." Rory whined.

"All I can say is that I'm sorry. I'll call her today, I promise."

"Whatever." Rory muttered. Lorelei brushed it off, but she didn't like Rory's attitude. It upset her to see Rory so withdrawn and scared her to see the slightly distant look in her eyes.

The nurse reentered the room and after checking with Rory one last time, she lowered the bed so it wasn't as tall.

It took quite a long time, but with the help of the nurse, Rory learned to maneuver herself into the wheelchair without aggravating the area in which she had recently had surgery.

Rory felt better now that she could move around freely, but it was weird to be so much shorter than everyone, she had always been a tall person. Rory thought about how much more intimidating Paris would be now that she towered over her.

The one thing Rory adored about the wheelchair was that in between the arm rests and wheels were pockets to carry belongings in, pockets just the right size to carry books. Tipping over backwards and coming home lopsided because of her heavy backpack was a thing of the past.

But the list of things that were in her past was long and would take a long time to complete. She could no longer ride the bus to school, go up steps, or even kiss Dean without him kneeling. She wouldn't even be able to hold his hand when they walked because she would need them both to roll straight. It was the small things that she knew she was going to miss the most.

* * *

><p>"Where is she?! Why didn't you call us sooner?" Rory was reading when the irritated voice in the hallway reached her ears. She closed her book and wheeled toward the door to her hospital room. She knew this was going to be entertaining, probably refreshing.<p>

"You'd think when one's granddaughter is in the hospital one's daughter would think to call!" Emily yelled as the door to Rory's room swung open.

"Rory, darling, are you alright?!" Emily rushed over and hugged her, and Richard followed behind in suit.

"I'm alive." Rory said shortly, she was being suffocated.

The rest of their visit went on as expected: Richard politely asked Rory how she was and began to read his newspaper, Lorelei sat in a corner and rolled her eyes, and Emily spent the next hours complaining about anything and everything she could possibly complain about. The lot of them were just fine continuing as usual until Emily brought up the subject of Rory's father.

"Why isn't Christopher here to see his daughter?" Emily asked. Rory shifted in her wheelchair.

"He didn't answer when I called." Lorelei explained.

"Nonsense! You should have left him a message!" Emily scolded Lorelei. Rory guessed that the conversation was going to last a while, and not wanting to be involved, she pulled a book out of a pocket and began to read. She was really liking the feature that she no longer had to carry books to have one handy.

"Well, mom, it's not exactly something I could leave in a message! What did you want me to say, 'Hey Christopher, by the way, our daughter's in the hospital because her legs are paralyzed.'?!" Lorelei stopped to make sure her daughter wasn't offended, but either Rory hadn't noticed because she was reading or she didn't have a reaction.

"Lorelei, why must you act like this?" Emily questioned her daughter.

Rory and Richard both looked at the other's reading material, and after making eye contact, they switched book and newspaper and continued reading.

"I'll call him again, if it would please you!" Lorelei told Emily. Emily rolled her eyes and pointed to the door. Lorelei gave in and punched a few buttons on the phone before walking into the hallway.

* * *

><p>Rory wouldn't admit it out loud, but her favorite part of each day was when Paris would show up with her schoolwork. No matter what, they always got into an argument, and for some reason Rory loved this. Paris was the only one who would treat her like a normal person.<p>

In truth, Rory and Paris had found themselves attached to one another, ever since that hug when Paris had opened the closet door and found Rory freezing. Almost every time Rory saw Paris, she remembered that hug.

"That assignment was due yesterday!" Paris yelled at Rory.

"It's not my fault you didn't tell me about it!" Rory shouted right back.

"It was on the list of assignments I gave you." Paris pointed out.

"You said I wouldn't need the list because you told me basically everything." Rory argued.

"_Basically_ everything implies that there were still things I left out. And I wouldn't have made you a list if I was going to say everything on it and you wouldn't have to look at it." Paris snapped. Rory rolled her eyes, knowing she'd lost that round, and got to work.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Paris said and promptly left the room.

When Lorelei reentered the room she noticed the light slowly fading from Rory's eyes. She had noticed that the only time Rory seemed like herself was when she was with Paris. She wondered why that was, Paris was always a jerk. Lorelei only didn't hate her because she figured out where Rory was.

"Hey Rory, everyone says you can come home today." Lorelei said as she entered Rory's hospital room. Rory glanced up at her and didn't give Lorelei her full attention.

"Ok." She said.

"That's it? 'ok'?" Lorelei asked.

"Pretty much." Rory said, not taking her eyes off of the paper on her lap. If Rory had looked up, she would have seen the genuinely sad look on Lorelei's face. To Lorelei it appeared as if Rory didn't care whether she was with her or not. All it seemed Rory cared about was her schoolwork, which wasn't unusual, but something was off.

"What about school?" Rory suddenly asked. It startled Lorelei from the silence of the room. Lorelei didn't really know what to tell Rory, so she didn't say anything.

"Ok. Let's go!" Rory said. Rory's excitement itself made Lorelei want to agree with whatever it was she wanted, but the common sense in her ruled.

"Now? What-"

"Yeah! If we leave now we can still get there with half of the day's classes left!" Rory said. This statement made it known to Lorelei that Rory had known exactly when they would get to school if they had left that very moment before she even said anything. Rory had been obsessing.

"I don't think that's such a-"

"Please? You know I love you." Rory begged. It tugged at Lorelei's heartstrings. Rory had been so absentminded around her that it filled her with joy to hear those words.

"I guess." Lorelei finally gave in. She didn't know how Rory was going to pretend everything was as it was before, but she knew her daughter would manage. She also knew keeping Rory at home wouldn't be making her rest, she'd be studying the whole time and beg to go to school.

So Lorelei checked Rory out of the hospital and drove her to Chilton.


End file.
